Hello, and welcome to WashingtonAreaOnline.com. This site will be about life and events in Washington New Hampshire and surrounding areas. If you would like to see more old photos of Washington N.H., click on “Old Photos” under categories.
I will be posting some old photos that date from 1880-1900. They were made by restoring some postcards that I borrowed to scan and restore. This one is looking East on Main St.
Here’s a photo of the Hotel that used to be in the center of town, known as Lovell House
Greetings from Washington N.H. Winter still has a strong grip on Washington. The sun is warming things up and we’re thawing slowly, which is a good thing. We still have so much snow here that if a real warm spell hit it would be a real mess. Our road would become impassable very quickly. This slow warming trend is fine for now. Latest word about Diamond Acres is that they haven’t determined the cause yet and they are planning on rebuilding. They just ran a story on it in the Keene Sentinel on March 18 I believe. The owner has no idea how it happened, he locked up like any other night, went to his house in back and a little while later started hearing the sounds from the fire. At least no one was hurt. Hopefully the new place will be ready for the hot weather, although if things go the way they have been we’ll still have snow in June.
Sad news for ice cream lovers in the Hillsborough area. The popular Resteraunt and ice cream stand Diamond Acres in Hillsborough was destroyed by fire on Saturday night. The fire had completely engulfed the building by the time fire fighters arrived shortly after 8 p.m.
Diamond Acres has been a favorite place to find relief from the summer heat for generations of local people as well as weary travelers on Route 9 since it was built in 1962. Diamond Acres was located across the road from Manahan Park, Hillsboroughs town beach. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.
Check back here for more news on the fire as it becomes available.
Greetings from Washington, NH.
It’s been a wild winter up here in the hills, and it’s not over yet. As I sit here we are having one heck of an ice storm. We received about 7 inches of snow last night, but it turned to sleet and then rain. It’s raining now, and the roads have flooded since the rain soaked snobanks can’t absorb any water and it has nowhere to drain off. I attempted to drive to work in Keene via Route 31 and 9, but after about 12 miles (of the 34 I drive each way), I turned around. Route 9 was a horror show. Every low spot was flooded and the rest was wet sheets of ice several inches thick. Extremely hazardous. I made it back home except for the last hill. My car is parked at the bottom of it for the night, until the plows make it up here. Not the first time this winter it’s happened, but hopefully the last. Well, that’s my weather rant for this week. Hope things are sunny where you folks are. Until next time…
Greetings from Washington New Hampshire. We’re waiting on a snow and ice storm due Friday night, 6 inches plus of snow plus a layer of ice. Not much happening this time of year except the weather.
Don’t forget the Hidden Valley Snow-Riders snowmobile club and the Lempster Fire Dept. are hosting a radar run on Dodge Pond in Lempster on Feb. 9, 2008. They will have a 660′ run with a christmas tree start. Classes are120,340,440,500,600,700,800,900,1000, and over 1000 mod.
Greetings from Washington, New Hampshire. I saw something rather interesting a few days ago on my way to work in Keene. A couple of miles away from my place, I was on Lempster Mountain Road when I noticed a large green Fish and Game suv on the side of the road, and there was a guy standing at the edge of the woods pointing one of those hand held radio tracking antennas. He must have been trying to find a radio collared bear, as I don’t think they radio collar any other critters around here. There must have been one hibernating nearby. I know what section of woods I’ll be steering clear of when snowshoeing.
We had a few inches of snow last week, but it’s been mostly sunny and cold lately. It’s supposed to warm up a little for the weekend. It won’t be too long before things start warming up and things will start happening so I’ll have something more to write about besides the weather.
Greetings from Washington N.H. Well, add another six inches to our snowfall total, We had another Nor’Easter last night and today. We’re still waiting for the snow to stop before firing up the snowblower to clear the driveway. We’ll probably wind up with at least a couple of more inches as these storms tend to park themselves over us and continue way after most places have cleared up. During one storm this winter we received continuous snow for 2 days after it had stopped down in Keene.
Buffalo New York has “Lake Effect Snow” and Washington New Hampshire has “Mountain Effect” snow. If anybody ever wanted to open up a cross country ski resort, Washington N.H. would be ideal. With the constant snow we get during a normal winter you wouldn’t have to do much trail grooming. Mother nature would take care of it for you.
Greetings from Washington, New Hampshire. Well, it’s solid ice outside. I mean EVERYTHING is coated! Let my dog out to do her thing, she was slip sliding all over the place. She couldn’t wait to go back in. There’s a thick freezing fog out there and when the wind blows it just kind of hisses as it blows through the frozen tree branches. The branches make kind of a klinking crystal sound when the wind moves them. I’m supposed to drive to Keene to work this afternoon. It’s gonna be an adventure. I just had new studded snow and ice tires put on and I’ll be seeing if they work as advertised. They’re supposed to work fine on glare ice. They’re called Arctic Claw by Cooper and I got them at VIP auto center. They’ve been super this far, but I haven’t used them on glare ice yet. Also, If you get ice where you are, try YakTrax. They are these super icewalking aids that are made of rubber, they stretch over the bottom of your boots, and they have coil springs on them. They work fantastic. You can walk on any icy surface with no fear of falling. At only twenty dollars, they’re less than half the cost of a visit to the chiropractor or doctor. I’ve seen them at Dicks Sporting goods and EMS but they probably sell them at a lot of other big retailers as well as online.
Greetings from Washington N.H., It’s cooled off a little after our January thaw. It’s still very nice for this time of year, with daytime highs in the 30’s and lows in the teens and twenties. Every day like this is one day closer to spring.
Filled my tank last night and got a fresh dose of gas pump sticker shock. It’s $3.14 per gallon in Keene where I work. Blue Canoe in Hillsborough is usually at least ten to twelve cents cheaper than Keene. I don’t get the price difference. It doesn’t cost over a dime a gallon to haul that stuff up Route 9 to Keene. I’m glad I drive a small car. I really feel bad for the folks driving the big 8 cylinder vehicles.
After the frigid cold of the last couple of weeks, we’ve finally got a taste of spring. It hit 50 degrees today, with blue skies and sunshine. Felt Great! I got to drive with my window down for the first time in a long while. It looks like they are starting to bring in some heavy equipment to start construction on the Wind Farm on Lempster Mountain. The huge dump truck and excavator I saw them bringing in must be to open up the road.
Greetings from Washington, N.H. Well, after the latest storm, we’ve had a couple of days of darned cold weather. Last night it got down to about -5 degrees. The good news is that it’s supposed to get up to the high twenties today. It’s only 1 degree at 11:00 a.m. so I’m waiting for the warm air to roll in. It’s supposed to be relatively springlike for the next week or so with temps in the thirties and forties. Can’t wait. The nights will be down in the single numbers and teens, but that’s normal for this time of year.
Just picked some news for you snowmobilers, Feb. 9, on Dodge pond in Lempster N.H. there will be a snowmobile radar run, no pre registration required, just show up with your sleds. They will have a christmas tree and radar gun for the timed runs. They’ll have a 660′ plowed dragstrip. They’ll have the small machines, all the way up to the 1000cc modified ground shakers. They will be doing runs for speed and time with trophies for the fastest time in each class. Ought to be a lot of fun.